A person with good character will always be remembered

Since my last blog post was about good character, I decided to add a related story here to make it more interesting and realistic.

When I started thinking about good character, a particular person came to mind. Someone I attended high school with about 13 years ago. Even though it was so long ago, I always remember this particular high school friend of mine as someone with an exceptional moral character. He was someone who was raised in a religious Christian home, and I found it really striking that he would always try to do what was right, even though everyone else around (including some Muslims) couldn’t be bothered about right or wrong. I remember one particular day as a group of us were walking home from school, this boy began speaking to us about his then girlfriend. What he said to me will always remain in my mind because of the important lesson it held. You see, his girlfriend at the time came from a strict family who did not want her having boyfriends, and if she was to meet my friend during school holidays she would have to lie to her parents to do so and he absolutely insisted that he would not have her do that! He said to us that no matter how much he missed her, he would never have her tell lies, and he would not let her disrespect her family! He respected her and her family so much that he was willing to forego his own feelings to do the right thing. The pleasure of seeing his girlfriend was not worth it if she had to tell lies in order to see him. It would have been very easy for him to tell his girlfriend to lie to her parents and to meet him secretly, but he chose the more difficult path, the right path!

Now, people might think that this is a small thing, but because of the respect and honour that this friend of mine had, I will always remember him as a person with great character and even after all these years whenever I think of him I have the utmost respect for him. What’s more, out of all the people I attended high school with, he is someone who has done really well for himself, and I’m thinking this has everything to do with his good character!

The point I’m trying to make is that when people insist on always being truthful and respectful, other people begin to respect and honour them, and the respect continues for years to come. It takes small actions to reveal a person’s true character! Your true character comes through at times when you think other people are not paying much attention to you!

I'm sure that you have your own stories of people with good character, feel free to share them with us, or you can just add your comments below.